Why Real Madrid represent everything that the ‘new PSG’ tries to fight | OneFootball

What hasn’t already been said about Luis Enrique’s stunning rebrand of Paris Saint-Germain? From a team reliant on its superstars and thus fallible to their egos, to the harmonious footballing powerhouse that at long last delivered a Champions League title, their holy grail, to the French capital. There is no shortage of superlatives for a side that, at this rate, could become one of the best ever.

The club’s entire identity used to revolve around a select few players. There was understandably no room left in the spotlight when the likes of Lionel Messi, Neymar Jr and Kylian Mbappe were around. They were the club, they were the brand. But with their highlight reels came their tendency to cause division off the pitch.

No case exemplified this more than when Messi took an unsanctioned trip to Saudi Arabia, missing training without the club’s permission. It led to a two-week suspension and a permanent loss of support from the fanbase, who booed the eight-time Ballon d’Or winner on his next outing – despite registering impressive numbers across his two years in Paris – for a perceived lack of commitment. The mood was summed up by French football expert Maxime Dupuis in 2023, who said: “PSG are built backwards: they accumulate individualities without building a collective.”

This was what Enrique sought to change. Messi and Neymar bid farewell in the summer of 2023, before Mbappe – whose contract extension in 2022 gave him never-seen-before powers to even influence board decisions – left for free a year later, ending a drawn-out contract saga that infuriated PSG fans. Losing Mbappe, arguably the best player in the world at the time, to Real Madrid initially looked like a hammer blow. Instead, it paved the way for the Enrique transformation to take effect.

Powered by some of the globe’s most electrifying young starlets – the likes of Desire Doue, Joao Neves, Khvicha Kvaratshkelia – PSG have left individuality in their past and become one of the most dazzling, dangerous units we’ve seen in the modern era. For a team criticised for “buying the game” through the bottomless money pit of Qatari businessman Nasser Al-Khelaifi, PSG have done something quite remarkable: they’ve won over the neutral.

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PSG have rebranded from a team reliant on superstars to a harmonious footballing powerhouse (AP)

Winning Ligue 1 by a canter isn’t exactly distinctive for the Parisians, nor is storming to the Coupe de France. But in beating some of the continent’s heaviest hitters, including Liverpool and Manchester City, to at long last lift the Champions League and demolishing Inter Milan by a record margin of 5-0 in the final, that made a statement. After ditching their superstar ideology, this PSG had developed into a different, terrifying beast.

They’re already champions of Europe, and they’re now clear favourites to become champions of the world. Standing in their way from a place in the final, however, is a ghost of their past.

Real Madrid, on paper, look the most stacked team in world football. They’re the club Mbappe, the world’s best striker, joined last summer and they’re the club that most recently lured Trent Alexander-Arnold, the world’s best right-back, from his boyhood side. Position by position, their team is laced with the biggest names, and brands, in the game. Jude Bellingham, Vinicius Jr, Federico Valverde, Thibaut Courtois, Rodrygo – the list goes on and on.

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Kylian Mbappe joined the superstar-heavy Real Madrid from PSG last year (Getty)

The arrival of Alexander-Arnold (sorry, “Trent”) is indicative of Florentino Perez’s apparent desire to turn Real Madrid into football’s “all-stars”. But as PSG will attest, a team of individual superstars is not so much of a team, and does not guarantee success.

This was made clear to Los Blancos this season. Zero trophies (so far), finishing LaLiga runners-up behind El Clasico rivals Barcelona and crashing out of Europe at the feet of Arsenal – Declan Rice’s right foot, specifically. And over the past couple of years, the problem of ego has been blatant.

When Vinicius Jr lost out on the 2024 Ballon d’Or to Rodri, the reaction from Real Madrid was unhealthy. The club joined the petulant winger in boycotting the ceremony – a widely-criticised move – and branded the perceived “robbery” as a sign of disrespect. “It is clear that Ballon d'Or or Uefa does not respect Real Madrid, and Real Madrid does not go where it is not respected.” the club said in a statement, before both players and staff made their own feelings public. The clearest came from Eduardo Camavinga, who posted on social media: “FOOTBALL POLITICS. My brother you are the best player in the world and no award can say otherwise.” The usually demure and professional Carlo Ancelotti, meanwhile, said he had no regrets over the childish boycott.

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Vinicius Jr's failure to win the Ballon d'Or in 2024 was met with an embarrassing club-wide response (Getty)

The whole debacle was indicative of the power certain individuals must have behind the scenes at the Santiago Bernabeu. How else would the failure of one player to win an individual award lead to such an orchestrated club-wide response?

This sort of emphasis on individuality was a cancer at PSG. It still mutates aggressively in Real Madrid. It’s something new manager Xabi Alonso is admittedly trying to weed out. “Everything takes time,” he says. But when the two giants clash in New Jersey, a place in the Club World Cup final on the line, Enrique will get the chance to make an example out of the team whose ethos he worked so hard to expel from his own.

More critical figures in the game will be willing to point out how PSG still don’t show that much of a deviation from the superstar-heavy Real Madrid. The notion that they’ve build this winning team with European football’s “hidden gems” is misguided – you only need to take a peek at Al-Khelaifi’s outgoing transactions to see that. Bradley Barcola and the brilliant Doue were signed for a collective €95m from Lyon and Rennes, respectively, in the sort punt on youth that a club that wealthy can afford to take. Their ability to just discard the €80m Randal Kolo Muani demonstrates that PSG aren’t exactly an unlikely success or a fairytale underdog story.

But for so long, PSG have spent this money to little avail. Now, they’ve finally got it right. Abandoning the approach of signing the biggest names, the Parisians have forfeited immediate income from overwhelming shirt sales in favour of long-term success. Real Madrid, meanwhile, are still in their “dream team” phase. They’ll be staying in the headlines, but their wait for a trophy could be about to go on.